Unbroken: Laura Hillenbrand
The tag line for this novel is “A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption.” Never has there been a better tagline for a biography. Unbroken is the story of Louis Zamperini- Olympian, American hero, and all-around badass. I get a little hesitant about reading long historical biographies. Let’s be honest… a lot of the time they are boring. I’ve given up on my fair share of dry biographies (unless it has anything to do with Anne Boleyn- that’s my ish). That’s probably why it took me so long to get around to this book. I won’t lie- I thought the beginning was kind of boring. It took me about 30 pages to really start to get into it. But I’m glad I didn’t give up on the story quickly because it gets going pretty fast after that…
While the beginning is a little boring, you do need the backstory on where Louis came from. His early days as a little delinquent directly lead to his career as a runner in high school and on. The boy is fast; so fast that he makes it to the Olympics in Berlin. But then the war happens- World War II. This is probably one of my favorite time periods to read about. Something about how the whole country came together during this war just really gets to me. Unlike the turbulent ‘70s, America really stood up and all fought together. I trace back my love for this time period to when I had to put together a faux Victory Garden in fifth grade. Ah youth.
So like many young American men, Louis enlisted in the US Army Air Force in the early 1940s. We get a lot of backstory on the types of planes that the US Army used back in the day and the men that Louis enlisted with. This is when the novel really starts to pick up. If you don’t want to know what happens at all, I suggest you stop reading here. I usually don’t give this much away in books but I figure most people already know the basics of what happens in this novel.
Louis is on a plane flying over the ocean when mechanical failures cause the plane to crash into the Pacific Ocean. Louis and two other crew members survive the crash with little more than a couple supplies and a raft. Before the crash the book foreshadows how absolutely awful it was for those who survived crashes and were afloat in the ocean. Many died of starvation, dehydration, exposure… and then there was the worst case scenario- getting captured by the Japanese as they drifted west. Unfortunately that’s what happens to Louis. After surviving more days than you probably thought was possible at sea, Louis gets captured by the Japanese and placed in a POW camp. From history classes you might remember learning about how horrendous the Japanese POW camps were during WWII. This book completely backs that up and at times it can be pretty hard to read.
At every page I was thinking to myself it can’t get worse for this poor guy. But sure enough it gets worse and worse. But that’s why this book is so inspirational. During everything he goes through, Louis never gives up. He pushes himself to survive. It’s a true story but it reads like fiction- it’s hard to imagine all of this happening to one person. But it did and he survived and even eventually found peace within himself after the war. So we can overcome anything right? While it’s a long book and a heavy read at times, I still would recommend this for the summer. If you are behind the times like me, make sure to pick up a copy of this book today! Or ask me to borrow it since I own it.
prguitarman
dededos
dailybridgerton
kianamaiart
2087
turnnoffyourmind
tangentwithtanner